With over 40,000 restaurants and a population of 8.4 million people continuously growing, it’s no surprise that New York City is the Mecca of everything food service. There are a lot of people to feed within the boroughs and a lot who come just for the food. Whether you are a restaurant owner or happen to be a chef, bartender, or waiter reading this story, we want you to know about Jitjatjo. The name may be a little quirky but its purpose is clear. Jitjatjo is a mobile marketplace for real-time temporary staffing.
When they say real time, I want to emphasize real time. Jitjatjo boasts that they can fill a gap in your staffing with a quality employee within the hour. I’ll go into that a little later. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Ron McCulloch, Co- Founder and Executive Chairman of Jitjatjo, along with Justin Melia, their Head of Marketing to learn more about the software and how its progressing after four months in the NYC market.
The idea was simple, “We produced something that is super easy to use giving our clients the ability to access pre-vetted temporary staffing when they need it,” McCulloch stated. With the goal of testing the model, Tim Chatfield and Ron, the two founders, decided New York City was the best place possible to showcase Jitjatjo. They figured if it was successful in New York City, it would have the potential of innovating staffing forever.
Jitjatjo has been in the NYC marketplace for only four months, after a twelve-week beta for early adopters. After launching in mid-October, the app now has thousands of talent and hundreds of clients and they’re only just hitting their stride. The app is available for free on Google Play and App Store and is gaining traction with talent and restaurants alike. So far Jitjatjo is being used at restaurants like Black Barn, Mulberry & Vine, and The Gander and many more. “Through the workflow and usability of the app, both operators and talent recognize that the app is a great utility and extremely easy to use,” McCulloch added. Jitjatjo introduces a unique pull model to this market, which is basically an algorithm that is designed to find the very best talent appropriate to each appointment every time you book, in seconds!
Everything an operator needs is packed into this app making it a one stop, real time, staffing tool. So let’s talk features, Jitjatjo is full of them, all inside the app: reference checks, skill assessments, phone interviews. rating systems for both the operator and talent, built in Q & A processes, management tools, communication tools, sourcing tools, even payment. “I know what it’s like to try and sustain a flow of productive temporary workers. It can be very difficult to do because there isn’t really, an ongoing one to one relationship. Our clients benefit from the fact that we have a collective talent community who want to do the best job they can for every location they go to,” McCulloch stated.
The real-time element of Jitjatjo features streamlined communication between the operator, the shift manager, and the talent. This takes form with in-app messaging and the GPS feature, which is not as invasive as it may seem. The app breaks down each active gig into five states, accepted, committed, nearby, working, and completed. The process is designed to give the operator a much more effective overview of each of the talent.
Needless to say, Jitjatjo is a simple, user-friendly app that creates fantastic opportunities for operators and talent. Whether you are a bartender looking for a new job or a restaurateur who needs to fill a spot that could turn full time, Jitjatjo gives you a rated, non-biased talent pool across a great range of recognizable FOH and BOH positions.
To learn more about Jitjatjo, visit their website.
